PBI-Colombia at civil society meeting with State Department that calls on the U.S. to condemn police violence in Colombia

On Friday, organizations including PBI-Colombia, WOLA, LAWG, CRIC, Temblores and the Colombia Human Rights Committee met with the U.S. State Department.

On May 28, Agencia de Información Laboral (AIL) reported: “Several human rights platforms met with officials from the U.S. Department of State.”

The AIL article continues: “The meeting was held on Friday [May 28] in a virtual manner and was intended to publicize the violation of human rights by the National Government in the context of the one-month national strike. [The] organizations showed State Department officials the critical situation in Colombia.”

“In a statement they have made public they say they made several requests to them, including an official pronouncement by the U.S. government, either from President Biden or his Secretary of State condemning police violence in the country.”

“They also called, according to the statement, for the suspension of assistance that the United States provides to the Colombian police. They stress that military aid has always been called upon to be conditional on unrestricted respect for human rights.”

The article adds: “This is not the first meeting of its kind to develop the platforms. For the past month they have been developing such high-level meetings with representatives of the international community.”

On May 5, PBI-Colombia also participated in a PBI-Canada convened virtual meeting in which representatives from the Regional Corporation in Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) updated officials from Global Affairs Canada and the Embassy of Canada in Colombia about the national strike.

Webinar this Thursday

To hear the latest on what is happening in Colombia one month after the national strike began, please join our webinar this Thursday June 3 at 3:30 pm EDT. For simultaneous translation in English/Spanish, register here.